Sterling High School students share about their experiences at Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Camp

Camp helped them to come out of their comfort zones, become more involved at school

Sterling High School students Dora Garcia (left), Thalia Rosales (center) and Ashleigh Feather, along with SHS dean of students Jodene Boerner, talk to the Kiwanis Club about the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Camp they attended. The Kiwanis Club has been sponsoring students who attend the summer camps since 1989. (Callie Jones/Journal-Advocate)

STERLING — Since 1989 the Sterling Kiwanis Club has sponsored sophomore high school students that attend the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Camp each summer.

On Wednesday, Sterling High School students Ashleigh Feather, a senior, and juniors Thalia Rosales and Dora Garcia visited with the Kiwanis Club to share their experiences at the camp.

Jodene Borner, dean of students at SHS, was also at the meeting and thanked the club for sponsoring the students, “It's a great experience for them.”

Feather attended the camp two years ago, when it was held at Colorado School of Mines. Around 130-160 students attended when she went.

“I was kind of nervous to go, just because you kind of get thrust into a group with a bunch of other kids that you don't know at all,” she said.

However, the experience really helped her come out of her bubble.

“It really does bring you out of kind of your comfort zone and it kind of sets a leadership foundation for you to build off of,” Feather said.

Since she attended the HOBY Leadership Camp she has become more involved at school. She is Student Council president and is a part of the Future Business Leaders of America and National Honor Society.

Rosales and Garcia attended the camp last summer at Colorado Christian University. There were about 200 students there.

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“It was a great experience to have,” Rosales said. “It was kind of scary at first, because they just kind of put you with people you don't know. It does bring you out of your bubble and it makes you want to meet the new people.”

She said she learned a lot from everyone she met there and the things they shared about what they were doing at their schools.

“It helped build me up as a person and as a leader,” Rosales said. “It makes me want to actually get involved in other things and not just be the shy person that doesn't say what she wants to say.”

Garcia said it was scary to be away from her family, but she had fun meeting all the different people there.

While at the camp students stay in the dormitories on campus, which provides a chance to experience what college life is like.

During the four-day camp the students did a lot team bonding activities and listened to speakers talk about leadership. They also did group activities where they “defined what leadership was in our eyes,” Feather said.

One of the speakers Rosales and Garcia heard was Jamie Utt, who did an activity called “The Wall.” He talked about bullying and how people mistreat others because of their race or religion. Utt had the students do an activity to see how they all had different opinions about religion and race.

They learned that words can hurt.

“I think that presentation really opened up everybody's eyes and let everybody see that we should treat everyone the same way,” Rosales said. “It made us change our way of seeing things and thinking.”

Students also do a service project while at the camp.

“They kind of wanted us to get a drive to do community service,” Feather said.

Rosales and Garcia helped clean up a park for their service project and Feather helped with a food drive.

In the year after students attend the camp they're asked to complete 100 hours of community service and submit them online.

After students participate in the camp, there is an opportunity to go back and help out at future camps, as facilitators and assistant facilitators or junior counselors. Feather said she wanted to go back and be a junior counselor, but she had another commitment at the same time as the camp.

At SHS students have to be nominated by the faculty to attend the camp. Faculty submits students' names and then the list is narrowed down to one student.

Borner said she would like to get to the point where students are required to write an essay if they want to go. However, that will take time in order to get everything out to the students, have them turn their essays in and find a committee to judge the essays.

This year's HOBY Leadership Camp will be June 6-9, at Colorado Christian University.

RE-1 Valley School District has announced its policy for determining eligibility of children who may receive free and reduced price meals served under the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program.
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